A Whiten
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 4122 |
|---|---|
| NOME | A Whiten |
| PRENOMES | A |
| SOBRENOME | Whiten |
| ASSINATURA | WHITEN A |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of St Andrews |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2426-5890 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 54 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 256 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 54 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1973 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 9 |
Children's imitation of costly rituals
Rituals are deeply ingrained in human lives and play significant roles from a young age. Children demonstrate a remarkable willingness to faithfully copy rituals, however, limited studies have examined whether this extends to situations involving material costs. This study builds on this literature by examining how children respond to matching ritual versus ordinary actions when imitation involves varying material costs. A total of 130 children a…
Children's distinct drive to reproduce costly rituals
Costly rituals are ubiquitous and adaptive. Yet, little is known about how children develop to acquire them. The current study examined children's imitation of costly rituals. Ninety-three 4–6 year olds (47 girls, 45% Oceanians, tested in 2022) were shown how to place tokens into a tube to earn stickers, using either a ritualistic or non-ritualistic costly action sequence. Children shown the ritualistic actions imitated faithfully at the expense …
Why do chimpanzees have diverse behavioral repertoires yet lack more complex cultures? Invention and social information use in a cumulative task
‘Over-imitation’
Imitation, Social Learning, and Cultural Traditions
Social learning allows the spread of new knowledge and skills, and is the basis for traditions in a wide range of animal species. These traditions may, in turn, form the basis of culture. Although often used synonymously with social learning, imitation denotes a distinctive social learning mechanism, which many researchers hypothesize allows particularly high‐fidelity transmission of information. This entry examines a range of social learning mec…
Culture, Nonhuman
Culture has had immeasurable consequences for our species. Whether nonhuman animals display culture that is in some ways homologous to our own remains a contentious issue. This entry examines the extent to which animals meet a range of cultural criteria proposed in recent literature, from social learning, through multiple‐tradition repertoires, to cumulative culture and cultural norms. Moving beyond the mere presence/absence debate to conceptuali…
Acquisition of a socially learned tool use sequence in chimpanzees
Resilience of experimentally seeded dietary traditions in wild vervets
Controlled laboratory experiments have delivered extensive and compelling evidence for the diffusion and maintenance of socially learned behavior in primates and other animals. Such evidence is rarer in the wild, but we show that a behavior seeded in a majority of individuals within vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythus) groups may be sustained across several years. Here, we report results of two natural fission events in such groups that offer n…
Socially transmitted diffusion of a novel behavior from subordinate chimpanzees
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) demonstrate much cultural diversity in the wild, yet a majority of novel behaviors do not become group-wide traditions. Since many such novel behaviors are introduced by low-ranking individuals, a bias toward copying dominant individuals ("rank-bias") has been proposed as an explanation for their limited diffusion. Previous experimental work showed that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) preferentially copy dominant over …
Chimpanzees copy dominant and knowledgeable individuals
Network Analysis of Social Changes in a Captive Chimpanzee Community Following the Successful Integration of Two Adult Groups
Chimpanzees are highly territorial and have the potential to be extremely aggressive toward unfamiliar individuals. In the wild, transfer between groups is almost exclusively completed by nulliparous females, yet in captivity there is often a need to introduce and integrate a range of individuals, including adult males. We describe the process of successfully integrating two groups of chimpanzees, each containing 11 individuals, in the Budongo Tr…
The human socio-cognitive niche and its evolutionary origins
Hominin evolution took a remarkable pathway, as the foraging strategy extended to large mammalian prey already hunted by a guild of specialist carnivores. How was this possible for a moderately sized ape lacking the formidable anatomical adaptations of these competing ‘professional hunters’? The long-standing answer that this was achieved through the elaboration of a new ‘cognitive niche’ reliant on intelligence and technology is compelling, yet …
Observer choices during experimental foraging tasks in brown capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella )
We investigated whether capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella ) would choose to observe a high‐ or low‐status adult female from their group during experimental foraging tests. The subject was located in the center of a test chamber, with a low‐ and high‐ranking demonstrator on either side of two partitions. A peephole allowed the subject to observe the models by looking through either respective partition. Each model was trained on one of the two diffe…
The impact of moving to a novel environment on social networks, activity and wellbeing in two new world primates
Among the stressors that can affect animal welfare in zoos, the immediate effect of relocation to a novel environment is one that has received little attention in the literature. Here, we compare the social network, daily activity and the expression of stress‐related behavior in capuchins ( Cebus apella ) and squirrel monkeys ( Saimiri sciureus ) before and just after they were relocated to a new enriched enclosure. Results showed similar immedia…
From over-imitation to super-copying
Recent research has revealed a striking tendency in young children to imitate even causally irrelevant actions, a phenomenon dubbed 'over-imitation'. To investigate whether children develop beyond this, we allowed both adults and children to witness either a child or adult model performing goal-relevant and goal-irrelevant actions to extract a reward from a transparent puzzle box. Surprisingly, copying of irrelevant actions increased with age, wi…
Living together
There are potential advantages of housing primates in mixed species exhibits for both the visiting public and the primates themselves. If the primates naturally associate in the wild, it may be more educational and enjoyable for the public to view. Increases in social complexity and stimulation may be enriching for the primates. However, mixed species exhibits might also create welfare problems such as stress from interspecific aggression. We pre…
The transmission and evolution of experimental microcultures in groups of young children
A new experimental microculture approach was developed to investigate the creation and transmission of differing traditions in small communities of young children. Four playgroups, with a total of 88 children, participated. In each of 2 playgroups, a single child was shown how to use 1 of 2 alternative methods of tool use, "lift" or "poke," to extract a reward from an artificial "foraging" device (the "panpipes") used in earlier diffusion experim…
Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee
We describe our recent studies of imitation and cultural transmission in chimpanzees and children, which question late twentieth-century characterizations of children as imitators, but chimpanzees as emulators. As emulation entails learning only about the results of others' actions, it has been thought to curtail any capacity to sustain cultures. Recent chimpanzee diffusion experiments have by contrast documented a significant capacity for copyin…
Social facilitation of exploratory foraging behavior in capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella )
Much of the research on animal social learning focuses on complex cognitive functions such as imitation and emulation. When compelling evidence for such processes is not forthcoming, simpler processes are often assumed but rarely directly tested for. In this study we address the phenomenon of social facilitation, whereby the presence of a feeding conspecific is hypothesized to affect the motivation and behavior of the subject, elevating the likel…
The evolution and cultural transmission of percussive technology
The multiple roles of cultural transmission experiments in understanding human cultural evolution
In this paper, we explore how experimental studies of cultural transmission in adult humans can address general questions regarding the ‘who, what, when and how’ of human cultural transmission, and consequently inform a theory of human cultural evolution. Three methods are discussed. The transmission chain method, in which information is passed along linear chains of participants, has been used to identify content biases in cultural transmission.…
Cultural Transmission of Tool Use in Young Children
Developmental and gender effects in the transmission of information about a tool‐use task were investigated within a ‘diffusion chain’ design. One hundred and twenty‐seven children (65 three‐year‐olds and 62 five‐year‐olds) participated. Eighty children took part in diffusion chains in which consecutive children in chains of five witnessed two attempts on a tool‐use task by the previous child in the chain. Comparisons were made between two experi…
Science, Evolution and Cultural Anthropology a Response to Ingold (This Issue)
Towards a unified science of cultural evolution
We suggest that human culture exhibits key Darwinian evolutionary properties, and argue that the structure of a science of cultural evolution should share fundamental features with the structure of the science of biological evolution. This latter claim is tested by outlining the methods and approaches employed by the principal subdisciplines of evolutionary biology and assessing whether there is an existing or potential corresponding approach to …
A bias for social information in human cultural transmission
Evolutionary theories concerning the origins of human intelligence suggest that cultural transmission might be biased toward social over non-social information. This was tested by passing social and non-social information along multiple chains of participants. Experiment 1 found that gossip, defined as information about intense third-party social relationships, was transmitted with siginificantly greater accuracy and in significantly greater quan…
Was There No Place Like Home
A bias for social information in human cultural transmission
Evolutionary theories concerning the origins of human intelligence suggest that cultural transmission might be biased toward social over non-social information. This was tested by passing social and non-social information along multiple chains of participants. Experiment 1 found that gossip, defined as information about intense third-party social relationships, was transmitted with siginificantly greater accuracy and in significantly greater quan…
Primate Calls, Human Language, and Nonverbal Communication [and Comments and Reply]
The evolution and cultural transmission of percussive technology
On Human Egalitarianism
The behavioral ecology of mountain baboons
Cognitive Evolution in Primates
Patterns of movement by baboons in the Drakensberg mountains
The Hierarchical Transformation of Event Knowledge in Human Cultural Transmission
There is extensive evidence that adults, children, and some non-human species, represent routine events in the form of hierarchically structured 'action scripts,' and show superior recall and imitation of information at relatively high-levels of this hierarchy. Here we investigate the hypothesis that a 'hierarchical bias' operates in human cultural transmission, acting to impose a hierarchical structure onto descriptions of everyday events, and t…
From over-imitation to super-copying
Recent research has revealed a striking tendency in young children to imitate even causally irrelevant actions, a phenomenon dubbed 'over-imitation'. To investigate whether children develop beyond this, we allowed both adults and children to witness either a child or adult model performing goal-relevant and goal-irrelevant actions to extract a reward from a transparent puzzle box. Surprisingly, copying of irrelevant actions increased with age, wi…
One-male groups and intergroup interactions of mountain baboons
The gastrointestinal parasites ofPapio ursinus from the Drakensberg Mountains, Republic of South Africa
Machiavellian Intelligence
The transmission and evolution of experimental microcultures in groups of young children
A new experimental microculture approach was developed to investigate the creation and transmission of differing traditions in small communities of young children. Four playgroups, with a total of 88 children, participated. In each of 2 playgroups, a single child was shown how to use 1 of 2 alternative methods of tool use, "lift" or "poke," to extract a reward from an artificial "foraging" device (the "panpipes") used in earlier diffusion experim…
Mental evolution and development
Recent interest in the development and evolution of theory of mind has provided a wealth of information about representational skills in both children and animals. According to J. Perner (1991), children begin to entertain secondary representations in the 2nd year of life. This advance manifests in their passing hidden displacement tasks, engaging in pretense and means-ends reasoning, interpreting external representations, displaying mirror self-…
Cultural Transmission of Tool Use in Young Children
Developmental and gender effects in the transmission of information about a tool‐use task were investigated within a ‘diffusion chain’ design. One hundred and twenty‐seven children (65 three‐year‐olds and 62 five‐year‐olds) participated. Eighty children took part in diffusion chains in which consecutive children in chains of five witnessed two attempts on a tool‐use task by the previous child in the chain. Comparisons were made between two experi…
Science, Evolution and Cultural Anthropology a Response to Ingold (This Issue)
Foraging Strategies and Natural Diet of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans
Social Learning and Primate Reintroduction
Children's imitation of costly rituals
Rituals are deeply ingrained in human lives and play significant roles from a young age. Children demonstrate a remarkable willingness to faithfully copy rituals, however, limited studies have examined whether this extends to situations involving material costs. This study builds on this literature by examining how children respond to matching ritual versus ordinary actions when imitation involves varying material costs. A total of 130 children a…
Natural Theories of Mind
1. Fundamental Issues in the Multidisciplinary Study of Mindreading: Andrew Whiten and Josef Perner (University of St. Andrews and Sussex University) 2. From Desires to Beliefs: Acquisition of a Theory of Mind: Henry M. Wellman (University of Michigan) 3. Developing Understanding of Desire and Intention: Janet W. Astington and Alison Gopnik (The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and University of California at Berkeley) 4. Understanding …
‘Agonistic buffering’ in the wild barbary macaque,Macaca sylvana L.
The gastrointestinal parasites ofPapio ursinus from the Drakensberg Mountains, Republic of South Africa
The behavioral ecology of mountain baboons
One-male groups and intergroup interactions of mountain baboons
Social relationships of mountain baboons
Instead of close and differentiated relationship among adult females, the accepted norm for savanna baboons, groups of Drakensberg mountain baboons ( Papio ursinus ) showed strong affiliation of females towards a single male. The same male was usually the decision‐making animal in controlling group movements. Lactating or pregnant females focused their grooming on this “leader” male, producing a radially patterned sociogram, as in the desert babo…
Social relationships of mountain baboons
Instead of close and differentiated relationships among adult females, the accepted norm for savanna baboons, groups of Drakensberg mountain baboons ( Papio ursinus ) showed strong affiliation of females towards a single male. The same male was usually the decision‐making animal in controlling group movements. Lactating or pregnant females focused their grooming on this “leader” male, producing a radially patterned sociogram, as in the desert bab…
Machiavellian Intelligence
Inside the Monkey Mind How Monkeys See the World. D. L. Cheney , R. M. Seyfarth
On the Nature and Evolution of Imitation in the Animal Kingdom
Patterns of movement by baboons in the Drakensberg mountains
Natural Theories of Mind
1. Fundamental Issues in the Multidisciplinary Study of Mindreading: Andrew Whiten and Josef Perner (University of St. Andrews and Sussex University) 2. From Desires to Beliefs: Acquisition of a Theory of Mind: Henry M. Wellman (University of Michigan) 3. Developing Understanding of Desire and Intention: Janet W. Astington and Alison Gopnik (The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and University of California at Berkeley) 4. Understanding …
Was There No Place Like Home
Cognitive Evolution in Primates
Primate Calls, Human Language, and Nonverbal Communication [and Comments and Reply]
Foraging Strategies and Natural Diet of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans
On Human Egalitarianism
Theories of Theories of Mind
Theories of Theories of Mind brings together contributions by a distinguished international team of philosophers, psychologists, and primatologists, who between them address such questions as: what is it to understand the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of other people? How does such an understanding develop in the normal child? Why, unusually, does it fail to develop? And is any such mentalistic understanding shared by members of other specie…
Ape mind, monkey mind
On the Nature of Complexity in Cognitive and Behavioural Science
The term `complexity' is often found in the behavioural and cognitive sciences. This paper compares the common-sense usage of the world with attempts by information theorists to provide a formal definition. The concepts of randomness, predictability, organization and complexity are reviewed and we advocate that a distinction be made between traditional `algorithmic' and a more biologically relevant `organizational' complexity. We develop the form…
Cultures in chimpanzees
Machiavellian Intelligence II
Mental evolution and development
Recent interest in the development and evolution of theory of mind has provided a wealth of information about representational skills in both children and animals. According to J. Perner (1991), children begin to entertain secondary representations in the 2nd year of life. This advance manifests in their passing hidden displacement tasks, engaging in pretense and means-ends reasoning, interpreting external representations, displaying mirror self-…
Social Learning and Primate Reintroduction
Cultural panthropology
Culture, in the most basic sense of “tradition,” has been shown to exist in many species. There is more to the phenomenon of culture in humans, however, than the mere existence of traditions. Thus, rather than expecting that culture can be assigned to living or ancestral species in an all‐or‐none fashion, reconstruction of the evolution of this uniquely complex phenomenon is likely to depend on successfully teasing apart its components, which may…
Use of leaves to inspect ectoparasites in wild chimpanzees
Psychology (41 obras) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (36 obras) · Biology (30 obras) · Social Psychology (24 obras) · Sociology (21 obras) · Child and Animal Learning Development (19 obras) · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior (18 obras) · Cognitive psychology (18 obras) · Language and cultural evolution (17 obras) · Ecology (14 obras)